Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Globalization

Citizens without States

edited by Lee Trepanier and Khalil M. Habib

Publication Year: 2011

Thanks to advances in international communication and travel, it has never been easier to connect with the rest of the world. As philosophers debate the consequences of globalization, cosmopolitanism promises to create a stronger global community. Cosmopolitanism in the Age of Globalization examines this philosophy from numerous perspectives to offer a comprehensive evaluation of its theory and practice. Bringing together the works of political scientists, philosophers, historians, and economists, the work applies an interdisciplinary approach to the study of cosmopolitanism that illuminates its long and varied history. This diverse framework provides a thoughtful analysis of the claims of cosmopolitanism and introduces many overlooked theorists and ideas. This volume is a timely addition to sociopolitical theory, exploring the philosophical consequences of cosmopolitanism in today’s global interactions.

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Contents

Introduction

Since the end of the cold war and the advent of globalization, interest in cosmopolitanism, with its ideas of global justice and citizenship and the like, has been on the rise. Although cosmopolitanism is not new, it is easy to see why it has gripped the post-cold-war imagination. Cosmopolitan is a term often used to describe a citizen of the world: an enlightened individual ...

Part 1

Socratic Self-Examination

In contrast to traditional readings of classical political thought that focus on virtuous political communities and inegalitarian social orders, recent scholars have found in ancient thought philosophic resources for more open societies, liberal polities, democratic self-government, and even global perspectives. In a recent review essay, Patrick Deneen identifies a new...

Roman Cosmopolitanism

The Roman Platonist Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 b.c.), the last great republican statesman of antiquity, has left us in his philosophical writings the fullest doctrinal elaboration of Socratic political theory in its implications for international affairs. Through his modification of Stoicism, Cicero erected the basic conceptual framework of the “law of nations,” within ...

Aquinas's Mediated Cosmopolitanism and the Impasse of Ancient Political Philosophy

While Saint Thomas Aquinas roots his political thinking in the natural law whose community is cosmopolis, with God as its ruler, he provides the basis for affirming the justice of, and citizen attachment to, particular regimes. All human relationships, with one another and with God, are mediated through a dense network of civic, social, and ecclesialties. Aquinas would ...

Ibn Tufayl's Critique of Cosmopolitanism in Hayy Ibn Yaqzan

Since the end of the cold war and the rise of globalization, many have begun to look hopefully to a cosmopolitan era governed by universal tolerance that transcends local ethnic or national boundaries. Ibn Tufayl, speaking to us from nine centuries ago, explores the possibility of cosmopolitanism and offers a thoughtful response to its hopes in his book ...

Part 2: Modern and Contemporary Cosmopolitanism

Kant's Teaching of Historical Progress and Its Cosmopolitan Goal

Immanuel Kant provides a philosophical justifi cation for cosmopolitanism in education and for internationalism in foreign policy. Like today’s internationalists, Kant asks teachers to promote universal perspectives in their students, educating them in “love toward others” and “feelings of cosmopolitanism.” Children should be made acquainted with their interest ...

Infinite Personality and Finite Custom

Recent scholarship on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s political philosophy
has stressed its place in the modern tradition of reflection on autonomy
and rights, thus rejecting negative assessments of Hegel as an authoritarian,
post-Napoleonic “Prussian” opponent...

An Introduction to Martin Heidegger

The death of Martin Heidegger was front-page news in the New York Times on May 27, 1976: “Martin Heidegger, a Philosopher Who Affected Many Fields, Dies.” An obituary of some two and a half thousand words followed. I note this not because the New York Times was the most noteworthy place where Heidegger’s death was remarked, and his life’s work ...

Alexander Kojeve

The tension between the aspirations of rational cosmopolitanism and the
inability to make that abstraction fi t with concrete life on the ground is at
the core of the German Idealist understanding of politics...

The Postmodern Condition of Cosmopolitanism

The advent of globalization has prompted both democratic and cosmopolitan theorists to reconceptualize democracy, citizenship, and political community, as “the ideals of citizenship clash with the sovereign nation-state in which they were first developed.”1 No longer able to meet the pressures of globalization, notions like democracy must be transformed in order to ...

Part 3: Cosmopolitanism in the United States

Madison and Republican Cosmopolitanism

Measured by diplomatic, cultural, military, economic, and political influence, America stands alone in the history of the world. Domestically, its people are generally wealthy and free. American nationality and sovereignty have helped Americans to defi ne and defend an understanding of the common good that has contributed to these blessings. One might therefore ...

Tocqueville, Cicero, Augustine, and the Limits of the Polis

The word cosmopolitan implies that the world itself can be regarded as a polis or political community and that it is possible for the human being to live as a citizen (polites) of the world. For its proponents, this ideal of universal citizenship is associated with enlightenment and sophistication, the liberation of the heart and mind from parochial prejudice and ...

Part 4: Practical Cosmopolitanism

European Dreamin'

It is a truism to note that there are multiple cosmopolitanisms. In my view, cosmopolitanism is a genus containing species of rather different sorts. Cosmopolitanism has marked moral attitudes, political life, philosophical thinking, and religious aspiration for millennia. Perhaps each epoch, though, hosts its distinctive versions. This essay takes aim at a widespread ...

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